Jorge-052
|born=March 5, |died=August 14, 2552 |height=223 centimetres (7' 4") |weight=320 lbs (145 kg) |hair=Brown |eyes=Hazel |gender=Male |cyber= |tag=052 |servicenumber= |unit=Gold Team (2525-2547) Noble Team (2547-2552) |speciality=Heavy Weapons |rank=Chief Warrant Officer |class= , Class I: |era=Human-Covenant War Interspecies Union Conflicts |affiliation= United Nations Space Command * (former) }} Chief Warrant Officer Jorge-052 was a SPARTAN-II commando of the UNSC Special Warfare Command. He was conscripted into the Navy as part of the SPARTAN-II Program at a very young age and trained to become the ultimate soldier, with chemical and cybernetic augmentations to enhance his natural abilities. He fought in many of the UNSC's most notable conflicts of the 26th century, with an active duty career spanning nearly thirty consecutive years. A veteran of the war with the Insurrection and the Human-Covenant War as well as many other, smaller confrontations, his records indicate that he saw more action against human opponents than alien, with a confirmed kill tally of Insurrectionists barely surpassing that of Covenant foes. He was one of the few SPARTAN-IIs with knowledge of the SPARTAN-III Program prior to the Battle of Onyx and served alongside S-III personnel as part of NOBLE Team until the Fall of Reach; he was also one of the few active SPARTAN-IIs to attain rank above that of a non-commissioned officer. He was presumed dead following the successful execution of Operation: UPPER CUT during the Fall of Reach, during which he manually fired an improperly mounted Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine in order to destroy a Covenant supercarrier with a Slipspace rupture. As per ONI Directive 930, he was listed Missing In Action. Biography Childhood Early years In the year 2509 on the colony world of , a fiercely independent-minded young veterinary graduate student named Anna Toulson astounded her family and colleagues by eloping with Antal Őrszem, a farmer with little beyond high school education and a very rough grasp of the English language. Their romance, thought to be a spiral into disaster, ended with the both of them settling down in a settlement near the frontier town of in the spring of 2510; the birth of their first child occurred a year later. György Őrszem was named after his deceased paternal grandfather, and received no recognition beyond disdain from his maternal grandparents, who viewed the arrival as a final blow to their efforts at severing the union between his mother and father. Anna's father, Colonel Jack Toulson, pressured her to change the boy's first name to something English out of contempt for Magyar culture – viewing Reach's population of East European colonists as poor and ignorant dirt farmers – but Anna refused to relent. György grew up without really knowing his grandparents, as they remained stubbornly aloof for the duration of his early life. It became apparent early on that György was destined to surpass other children his age, both physically and mentally, as he accomplished developmental milestones months before they were expected and demonstrated intelligence as well as creativity. Walking, talking and other feats were performed prematurely, and Anna quickly learned that she would be dressing him in clothes fit for children a year or more his senior. György quickly caught onto learning both English and Hungarian, and could converse intelligibly in both languages by his second birthday, to his father's great pride. The kiva proved an excellent place for the boy to exert his unusual vigor, as there were plenty of outdoor activities and other children to play with. By the time György was three years old, his mother and father had begun quarreling over his impending education; while his mother favored having him tested so he could attend a school suited to his uncanny abilities, his father was adamantly opposed to having the boy's education handled by the state. Antal's dislike of the Earth-based government, rooted in generations of suspicion and mistrust of martial authority, motivated him to keep his family as uninvolved in government-run institutions as he could. However, this quarreling would all be for naught, as both Antal and Anna were killed when their vehicle skidded on an icy road late one night as they drove back from an outing. György survived the crash with little more than cuts and bruises thanks to a child safety seat, and was made a ward of the state after the Toulsons refused to accept him into their lives. He was placed at St. Elizabeth's Children's Home in Szeged, a city near Pálháza, and would not meet any of his living relatives again for the rest of his life. Candidate 052 }} Unknown to György or his late parents, Dr. Catherine Halsey had been covertly keeping tabs on his development since his infant vaccinations, as his exceptional genes made him one of the few children she could utilize for the Spartan-II Program. In late summer of 2517, recruiters disguised as inspectors arrived at St. Elizabeth's and administered a few quick, simple tests designed to determine whether or not György would be one of the final seventy-five subjects accepted. Their decision was ultimately to remove him from the list, as his “shrinking violet” disposition and desire for affection – a byproduct of being passed over by adoptive parents multiple times – made him less appealing than other, more aggressive candidates. However, failure to acquire left Halsey with an empty slot that needed filling. With the deadline for a complete roster approaching, she chose to visit Candidate 052 in person, having just returned to Reach after completing her rounds in Sector Four. She visited St. Elizabeth's under the guise of searching for a child of her own, the necessary paperwork and clearance supplied by ONI and eliminating the weeks or months of preparation that would normally be required. Her initial impression of György did not stray far from her recruiters' assessment, as he practically clung to her thinking she was interested in taking him home with her, but as she questioned him about social order and his knowledge of the Insurrection, he began to open up and demonstrate a keener understanding of the ongoing conflict. When she asked him if he would like to make the fighting stop, his response was a firm “yes.” After concluding that György's gentle nature could be groomed into something more useful, Halsey added him to her list and elected to escort him from the orphanage herself. Her presence there was purged from official records immediately afterward; György's time there was also purged, his existence at St. Elizabeth's reduced to a string of classified data in ONI's clutches. Halsey changed his name to Jorge as a finishing touch, dropping the Magyar spelling and pronunciation for efficiency's sake. As he left little imprint on the world, there would be no flash-clone replacement. Upon arriving at the military complex, Jorge was separated from Halsey and taken to a holding area with the other children, where he would remain until the brief induction ceremony on September 23, 2517. Though the experience was a jarring one and quite different from the fantasies of home and family that his young mind had entertained, he was one of the few children to remain calm during Halsey's announcement of their new purpose; though unable to grasp the extent of her meaning, the prospect of protecting Earth and its colonies appealed to his media-skewed sense of heroism, his young mind having been filled with ideas from superhero comics and action vids. Devoid of the sorrow that plagued other candidates, who had been torn from their families, Jorge was a starry-eyed conscript with little idea of what he was really getting into. Boot Like the other candidates, Jorge experienced extreme physical and psychological discomfort during the first months of the transition from a normal life to that of a Spartan trainee. However, he was noted by Halsey as possessing an uncanny level of endurance, able to continue when most others were unable to move from pain or exhaustion. His adaptation to the severe regimen progressed satisfactorily as his impressionable mind adjusted to the indoctrination process and his body became accustomed to the strain put upon it. He developed close friendship with two trainees in particular, and Maria-062, who had been his teammates during their first test on the "playground." Their success in that exercise, as they were the fourth team to complete the challenge, led to bonding during what little free time the trainees were allowed by their trainers. Maria, one of the youngest trainees and one of the most devastated by removal from her family, often incurred the wrath of other children due to her emotional outbursts, which brought the wrath of down upon them all; Jorge took it upon himself to lighten her load by shouldering a portion of her responsibilities in exercises, and established that he would use his size and strength to defend her against attacks. Though Maria eventually outgrew her vulnerability, her bond with Jorge remained close due to the mutual trust they shared. Though the brutal experience served to bring out Jorge's aggression and alpha-male tendencies, he did not easily assume positions of leadership, preferring to follow the whims of other trainees who had established themselves as reliable. As Halsey began to single out leaders from the group and scrutinize them more closely, he felt traces of jealousy toward those she "favored," and pushed himself to perform better in order to attract her attention. Despite the heavy emphasis on remaining focused and eschewing attachments beyond loyalty to the cause, Jorge's somewhat fanciful perception of Halsey as the mother he had always wanted persisted throughout his childhood, prompting him to behave somewhat uncomfortably when dealing with her favorites - especially . The imagined rivalry never came to a head, but Jorge remained baffled by her extreme interest in John, Fred, Kurt and Jerome, and pined for validation and approval from her in spite of Mendez's efforts to beat such sentiments out of him. This longing evolved into proper respect over time, but a filament of attachment would always linger in Jorge's view of the doctor; his connection to Mendez bore no such embellishment, though he came to regard the man as a role model instead of a despicable tormentor. Jorge, Kirk and Maria were eventually sorted into Gold Team along with trainees Calista-141 and . Their "activities" ranged from the daily grind of exercising and Mendez's schemes to combat simulations against Marine fireteams, usually armed with stun weaponry but occasionally equipped with live rounds. Jorge found his niche as Gold Team's heavy weapons expert, his larger size and upper body strength enabling him to utilize more massive weaponry earlier than most of the other children. He was specially educated as a translator along with Maria and several other candidates, his expertise being Magyar. His boisterous personality and sense of humor did not atrophy, but his focus and dedication to the Spartans' indoctrinated ideals solidified as he grew older and matured into a teenager. For all intents and purposes, he belonged fully to the UNSC, having accepted his lot as a sacred charge and possessing no ties to his former existence. In 2522, he was reprimanded for arguing loudly with Ralph-303, who had been reminiscing about his old home and family to Daisy-023 and ; Jorge viewed their preoccupation with their origins as a distraction, as he lacked any such severed links and believed wholeheartedly in Halsey and Mendez's mission. This devotion to the core ethos of the Spartan-II Program made him one of the most dutiful trainees, if not one of the most blindly loyal. In 2523, Jorge became aware of a romantic relationship that existed between Kirk and Maria when he accidentally discovered them together in a utility closet. As the debacle involving 's romantic indiscretions still loomed over them all, particularly what had happened to , Jorge ultimately remained silent on the issue, though it drove a wedge between himself and his best friends. His own attachment to Maria, thought to be a big-brotherly sort of affection but laced with something more, suffered from the slip of trust between teammates and he became alienated from her as well as Kirk despite their gratitude after he refused to rat on them. Dr. Halsey questioned Jorge about the sudden shift in Gold Team's dynamic, though she knew full well what was happening between Kirk and Maria, but Jorge refused to divulge any details even to her. The conflict between his immense sense of duty and his personal feelings disturbed him greatly, but he moved past it and continued to train with his teammates, albeit minus the deep emotional bond that had connected them previously. A Spartan Forged Augmentation In March of 2524, Jorge and the rest of the Spartan-II candidates reported for a series of augmentation procedures designed to enhance their physical strength and durability as well as their reflexes. The following chemical and surgical procedures were administered: *Occipital capillary reversal - submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of the retinas; produces a marked visual perception increase, with risk of retinal rejection and detachment as well as permanent blindness. *Carbide ceramic ossification - advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable; risk of white blood cell necrosis or uncontrollable growth spurts and bone pulverization. *Catalytic thyroid implant - platinum pellet containing human growth hormone implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues; risk of elephantiasis or suppressed sexual drive. *Muscular enhancement injections - protein complex injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time; risk of fatal cardiac volume increase. *Superconducting fibrification of neural dendrites - alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction, yields a 300% increase in subject reflexes and produces marked increase in intelligence, memory and creativity; risk of Parksinson's disease and Fletcher's syndrome. Jorge was unaware of the true nature of the surgeries and allowed himself to be prepped and sedated with dutiful obedience, believing it to be a continuation of the endocrine therapy he and the others had received throughout their training to accelerate physical development. Due to the risky and experimental nature of the procedures, thirty of the seventy-five trainees died on the operating table, while twelve were rendered incapable of continuing service by either illness or deformity. Despite being sedated, Jorge experienced excruciating pain from the chemical reactions taking place in his body. He suffered several tonic-clonic seizures during and after the fibrification surgery and went into cardiac arrest during the muscular enhancement injections, but was successfully stabilized and able to complete the augmentation process on time. He was able to reunite with Gold Team after recovering enough to move on his own, and learned from Maria that Kirk wouldn't be joining them. Upon discovering what had really happened to Kirk, whose bones had been twisted so horribly he was now unrecognizable and confined to a neutral-buoyancy gel tank, Jorge deeply regretted the grudge he'd held against the other boy and took it upon himself to offer comfort to Maria despite the breach of professionalism that entailed. The months of intensive therapy and exercises that followed served to distract them from their loss, as they adapted to their new bodies and applied the incredible abilities the surgeries afforded them to their military training. By August 2524, Jorge had fully recovered from the augmentations and was regarded as one of the strongest Spartans, his body having responded exceptionally well to the muscular injections despite his brush with death. His role as Gold's heavy became more prominent as he was now able to handle a wider variety of weapons, most of which a normal soldier couldn't dream of carrying around for long periods of time. His penchant for detaching mounted turrets and wielding them against trainers made him a formidable opponent, particularly with the rest of Gold available to compensate for any vulnerabilities. He and Maria overcame their previous alienation and became known as one of the most close-knit teams of the unit during two-man exercises, a development which met Halsey's approval and resulted in a restored trust between the two Spartans. Despite this, the shadow of Kirk's fate hung over them both, and prevented any unwanted emotional distractions from arising between them. First Deployments Following the successful capture of Insurrectionist leader Robert Watts by Spartan Blue Team, Jorge and the rest of the Spartan-IIs were introduced to a new threat: the Covenant. The unexpected raw power and destruction the alien empire had demonstrated at Harvest profoundly affected the young Spartan, as he and the others had never before encountered such an instance of loss, even in all their studies of humanity's past wars and atrocities. Now a Petty Officer Second Class, Jorge quickly galvanized his fear and wonderment into a deep-seated rage and prepared to shoulder the responsibility of fighting not only the human insurgency, but a genocidal alien menace as well. While en route to the Chi Ceti IV testing facility that would introduce the Spartans to Project MJOLNIR, Gold Team participated in anti-Insurrectionist operations on Jericho VII. As this was Jorge's first deployment, the experience was one of purpose and validation, and the Spartans suffered no casualties throughout the mission. The mechanical efficiency with which he dispatched rebel footsoldiers would not come to bother him for many years, but a definite sense of unease colored his thoughts after the fighting was done; since the rebels wore civilian clothes and had integrated themselves in local communities, it was a far different experience than fighting uniformed and professionally armed opponents. This did not hamper his enthusiasm, however, and he remained resolutely committed to the ethos Halsey and Mendez had instilled in him. Upon reaching Chi Ceti IV, Jorge and the rest of his squad were fitted with MJOLNIR Mk IV powered assault armor, which melded the culmination of humankind's technological innovation with the Spartans' augmented physiques to render them near-invincible. Though clumsy at first in MJOLNIR's force-multiplying shell, Jorge quickly acclimated to the armor's strength and speed enhancing properties. During the trip back to the UNSC Commonwealth, he deployed with the others to destroy a Covenant vessel that was attacking the UNSC ship. Jorge did not make it to the Covenant ship, and witnessed its destruction while floating in vacuum awaiting pickup. Learning that Samuel-034's death had brought about the Covenant vessel's demise impacted him greatly, as Sam had been a charismatic presence among the Spartans and a good friend to Jorge. He attempted to give John-117 a deck of playing cards that Sam had given Jorge when they were children, as Sam had been John's best friend, but John admonished Jorge to keep the cards and focus on stopping the Covenant above all else in Sam's honor. Sam's sacrifice instilled in Jorge the resolve to willingly give up his life to protect others, more so than any amount of training could have done; it also motivated Jorge to become more extroverted, in order to fill the void left by the late Spartan's strong sense of camaraderie. A Two-Way War Operation: REVOCATE In February of 2526, Gold Team was assigned to recover data which pertained to the Covenant attack; the stolen data included a number of highly sensitive ONI files detailing UNSC colonial defenses as well as other classified items. Jorge and his teammates were dispatched to the colony of Paradise Falls with orders to secure the data and eliminate the two Office of Naval Intelligence defectors responsible for the theft. Despite grim expectations, as Paradise Falls had festered with rebel activity since the late 25th century, the Spartans were able to land successfully without encountering any opposition. Maria, now Gold Leader, ordered the team to split and rely on the they had deployed before landing in order to hunt their two targets. With Cal acting as their reconnaissance, the remaining two pairs of Spartans made their way separately through the city of Lazy Acres, using the sewers to easily traverse the distance and avoid the storm raging above ground. They then commandeered a Pelican dropship that had been repurposed as a rescue vehicle and used it to transport the entire team to the Insurrectionist base which had been constructed in the foothills several miles away, where the defectors had traveled to hand over their information. Infiltration went off without a hitch, the rebels proving little to no match for the Spartans. Having expected a team of ODSTs at worst, the Insurrectionists were ill-equipped to resist the edge provided by the Spartans' training and MJOLNIR armor. While Jorge, Maria and Malcolm pursued the targets, Cal busied herself sabotaging the surveillance network, scrambling rebel comms, and setting off explosives. As predicted, the defectors and their high-ranking hosts attempted to flee in all the confusion, heading for a specially-prepared shuttle; Gold Team cut them off from their exit and trapped them in the section of the facility that connected to the hangar. The former ONI agents died before the Spartans could even shoot at them, having ingested instantly lethal poison. Gold Team succeeded in capturing the three Insurrectionist officers present and retrieved the data, though one of the prisoners, Captain Bernard Franklin, attempted to sway the Spartans by insisting that the UNSC was planning to let the aliens burn entire colonies as a way to measure Covenant strength and tactics. His frenzied plea went unregarded by the Spartans, though Jorge would come to dwell on Franklin's ravings later in the war; the Insurrectionist's claims that the UNSC would allow colonies of lesser value to be conquered, that the government the Spartans had been taught to regard as the absolute authority in their lives would willingly sacrifice millions of civilians, seemed ludicrous at the time. Gold Team departed Paradise Falls with the data and three prisoners in tow, and the mission was deemed a critical success. The Fall of Shambhala In 2527, the Outer Colony of Shambhala came under attack by the Covenant. Due to the fact that Shambhala was one of the most cooperative Outer Colonies, a sizeable defense force existed there as well as an ONI research facility; subterranean Forerunner ruins on the planet had been the subject of ONI's scrutiny for years, and served to attract the Covenant's attention. Gold Team arrived aboard the frigate Carrickfergus as part of reinforcements sent to stave off the Covenant assault and buy time for the ONI research team which was attempting to extract valuable information from an alien artifact. The young Spartans had never faced the Covenant in battle, having been deployed exclusively against rebels up to this point, but did not let this fact deter them. Jorge's first Covenant kills were accomplished quickly and efficiently, as he adapted to their varying strengths and weaknesses despite his disgust with their bizarre natures. As the Covenant progressed toward victory over the UNSC, Gold Team was pulled from the front lines and tasked with evacuating the ONI research team out of the capital city, Kalapa. This mission sent the four Spartans deep into enemy-held territory, and they were unable to get past Covenant infantry by going through the sewers, as the underground tunnels had already been infested by Drones. The slow, grueling trip through the city introduced Jorge to the full horrors the Covenant were capable of; the capital had been laid to waste before most of its civilian population could evacuate, resulting in a massacre which left the dead lying in the streets for days. In addition to occasional signs of torture, some bodies had been partially eaten by either Jackals or Brutes. The sheer amount of carnage and death was something Jorge had never before witnessed up close, and though he never once showed any sign of losing focus on the mission, the experience left an indelible mark on him. According to footage obtained from Maria-062's helmet cam, Jorge became physically ill during the trek but kept going despite it - an episode which would repeat itself after the battle was through, during his debriefing. Gold Team successfully extracted the last remaining researcher, one Doctor Lucinda Glover, and delivered her to the evac point. The UNSC abandoned Shambhala soon afterward, deeming it too costly to attempt retaking the planet. Post-mission assessment of Jorge's mental state found no notable lapses in his focus or judgment, and though he wrestled with what he had witnessed on Shambhala, he was deemed fit to continue his duty. His perception of the value of human life, though decidedly morally gray in light of his indoctrination and actions against Insurrectionists, underwent a significant shift as a result of his experience on Shambhala; he became fiercely protective of civilians as a result, whereas before he had fought without any particular attachment to them. The experience also served to instill a very personal and venomous hatred of the Covenant in his heart; Sam's death, harsh as it was, had lacked the stark sense of violation that the corpses in Kalapa's streets presented. The Covenant became little more than beasts in Jorge's reckoning, merely animals to be put down instead of sentient beings, and this attitude would only harden as the war and its horrors escalated. Harvest In the final months of the , Gold Team participated along with several other Spartan teams in the UNSC's effort to liberate the former colony from Covenant control. Though hardly a reunion, the presence of so many Spartans led to many brief encounters between Spartans who had not seen one another in years. Due to the demand for Spartans in operations spread across the planet, teams were split and reorganized to suit various needs, and Jorge found himself grouped with several Spartans he hadn't had contact with for a long while. One of these Spartans was Daisy-023, and though the two of them had shared a less than cordial acquaintance in their training days, they quickly bonded while busy repelling the Covenant. The fight at Harvest dragged on throughout the winter of 2530 and the early spring of 2531, with the alien empire's tenacity only increasing the more the UNSC chipped away at its hold. During the Battle of Fólkvangr, in which UNSC forces attempted to oust Covenant troops from the ruined city of Fólkvangr and failed, Jorge's team split in order to accomplish several key objectives; while Jorge and left to procure a warhead from the wreck of a crashed Pelican, Daisy assisted the few Marines that remained and attempted to evacuate them. When Jorge and Arthur returned from their assignment, having been assisted by the newly-arrived John-117, they discovered that the Marines had been wiped out and Daisy killed in action. Her death affected Jorge deeply, but he elected to prime the nuke instead of grieve. The three Spartans departed Fólkvangr with Daisy's body in tow and left the Covenant to burn there as the nuke detonated, wiping out the aliens' foothold in that sector. The loss of Daisy weighed heavily on Jorge's conscience, as he had protested her decision to assist the Marines on her own, but did not press her to change her mind. While Sam's death had been something to mourn from a distance, Daisy's demise was painfully close; when the ONI came to collect her corpse and armor, John-117 handed over the teddy bear trinket Daisy had kept on her person to Jorge instead of the operatives, a move that echoed Jorge's own attempt to give 117 Sam's playing cards years ago. Jorge accepted the toy, unable to refuse something that had been a part of his dead teammate, even if it did count as a forbidden item on the battlefield. As with Sam's death, Jorge gained additional resolve from the tragic event and moved on from the loss with greater determination to defeat the Covenant. Crisis on Victoria Following the conclusion of the Harvest Campaign, Gold Team returned to fighting the Insurrection; the next decade of Jorge's active service would be more heavily influenced by his actions against human foes than by combat with the Covenant, though he lost none of his desire to fight against the alien menace. As the Human-Covenant War escalated, the various factions which comprised the Insurrection took advantage of the chaos and aggravated existing weaknesses in the UNSC's hold on both Inner and Outer Colony worlds. The UNSC, unable to maintain order and keep the Covenant at bay simultaneously, relied on the Spartans to address sources of unrest through precise application of force and sabotage. To this end, Jorge was frequently fielded against insurgent elements; this near-exclusive use of Spartan-052 in humanity's civil war would come to shape his personality and outlook in ways that the Office of Naval Intelligence had not predicted. In 2537, a resurgence of the rebellion on Victoria prompted the deployment of Gold Team to take down the leadership there. The power vacuum left by the demise of Howard Graves and the collapse of Graves' faction there had led to the establishment of FLP dominance on the planet, with Victoria serving as a major center of rebel activity under the Party's control. Gold was charged with capturing influential rebel commander Alfons Reinhard and his son Sigmund, who oversaw the acquisition and distribution of munitions for the Victorian FLP. The Office of Naval Intelligence confirmed that both Reinhards would be present at a meeting with representatives from the FLP's sister insurgency, the People's Occupation Government; Gold Team was dispatched to acquire the father-son duo as well as gather intel on the Insurrection's current movements and strategy. The mission was interrupted by the arrival of a Covenant attack force, which easily cut through the rebels' planetary fleet and launched an invasion in a matter of hours. The Spartans were forced to abandon their objective after Alfons Reinhard was confirmed dead and Sigmund vanished in all the chaos. In addition to these complications, their communication with the UNSC was disrupted, leaving them without directives. Though they attempted to remain undetected, Gold Team was discovered by Insurrectionists who engaged them in armed combat and attempted to kill the Spartans using a fully-crewed tank. The confrontation became a three-way when Covenant troops began moving into the area, prompting Maria to offer the Insurrectionists a temporary alliance. The rebels accepted, albeit uneasily, and the two human groups fought to repel the Covenant; unfortunately, the squad of rebels was wiped out after their tank exploded. Gold Team proceeded to fight the aliens and managed to work their way toward the city of Regina, where the Covenant had already begun exterminating the civilian population through bombardment. The Spartans discovered that a combination of FLP and People's Occupation troops had attempted to defend the city, only to be cut down by the alien advance. Of the sixty rebels who had tried to hold Windsor Highway, only two remained alive by the time Gold Team reached the site. One of the survivors cursed the Spartans while the other, seventeen-year-old Jerusha Zheng, expressed a desire to accompany them and avenge her comrades. Maria put Jorge in charge of looking after the young woman and he assumed the role of her bodyguard as they moved deeper into the city. Zheng directed the Spartans to an operable Pelican dropship that the rebels had intended to use for evacuation, but argued with them after learning they intended to abandon the colony. Jorge attempted to console her by stating that they needed Slipspace-capable transport to leave, and that if they could they would try to take as many survivors as possible. Maria rebuked him on a private channel for making promises the Spartans weren't necessarily supposed to keep, then gave Gold Team the order to look for a starship. Operation: HARD FREEZE Fortunes of War During the late 2520's and early to mid-2530's, the occasions during which Doctor Catherine Halsey was able to interact with the Spartan-IIs outside of combat scenarios dwindled to the point where she never met them unless she was involved in one of their missions. In 2532, she was present during one of Gold Team's debriefings; her curiosity about the Forerunner artifact Gold had unwittingly encountered during their mission overshadowed any meaningful exchange she might have shared with Jorge, however. Despite this, she did remember to acknowledge his nearing twenty-first birthday, a surprising move on her part due to the detachment she had instilled in her trainees regarding such trivial matters. Though it was mostly placeholder banter as Halsey fished for more details on the Forerunner artifact, Jorge did appreciate the gesture and they parted cordially. As the years passed and the war on both fronts intensified, Jorge became increasingly more sensitive to the suffering of his own species, especially when dealing with civilians. Though seven years of training had molded him into a top-tier special forces operative and separated him psychologically from the rest of humanity, his experiences with fellow humans - whether they were refugees evacuating besieged colonies, or civilians encountered during his missions against the Insurrection - served to cultivate a sense of dissatisfaction with the way his status as a Spartan made him unable to relate to the people he had pledged his life to protecting. While most Spartans accepted their separation from others, as their conditioning rendered them near-incapable of prioritizing attachments beyond military service, Jorge found that his own inability to really empathize with civilians bothered him on a personal level. Over time, he slowly modified his own behavior by taking cues from other servicemen and studying their interactions with civilians; though awkward at first, he quickly adapted to this new approach and began to grow comfortable with playing both the professional killer and the empathetic guardian. This change manifested in other ways outside the battlefield, primarily regarding Jorge's perception of himself as his childhood indoctrination clashed with his natural intelligence and observations. The messy, brutal conflict with the Insurrection hardly swayed his belief that violent rebellion was wrong, but the political ideologies and concepts the war brought to the Spartan's mind took root and formed deep-seated opinions that were a far cry from the absolute black-and-white views that had been drilled into him as a child. By 2538, Jorge was noted by superiors and fellow Spartans to possess a surprisingly lenient attitude toward colonial independence, a viewpoint that occasionally resulted in heated words between himself and some of the more hardline Spartan-IIs. His own private beliefs regarding the Insurrection in no way softened his approach to deterring their efforts, but he still remained unusually vocal in his support of the concept of colonial sovereignty. Of his teammates, Maria was the most receptive to his opinions, and the two of them would often muse between themselves on the nature of their lives which had been completely rewritten on account of the war with the Insurrection. With the Covenant threat looming, there was no room for regret - yet a subdued sort of sadness came to dwell behind his efforts to appear and act more human, as clearer understanding of his own purpose and the events that necessitated it increased with age and experience. In 2542, Jorge and the rest of Gold Team were removed from action for a two-week period in order to undergo psychiatric evaluation as well as a thorough series of medical exams; though none of them exhibited any health problems, the Office of Naval Intelligence deemed it wise to provide mental and physical care for even the robust Spartan-IIs, as their psychology and augmentations set them apart from normal humans and necessitated occasional observation. It was during this time that Jorge was first identified as possessing minor symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, though he had exhibited indicators of the condition for nearly a decade. In a move that would later be viewed as controversial, the Office of Naval Intelligence chose not to categorize Jorge and several other Spartan-IIs as genuine cases of PTSD, instead citing the various emotional deficiencies which resulted from their unconventional training as the cause of their so-called antisocial tendencies. Despite Jorge's efforts to be a more sociable Spartan, he still displayed what would come to be known as the classic traits of a Spartan-II, particularly in regard to his psychological compartmentalization. In a way, Jorge existed in two states simultaneously, embracing his role as a tool of the UNSC's military might while consciously attempting to separate himself from that image. This contradiction did nothing to lessen his effectiveness in battle, but was nonetheless quite apparent to his fellow Spartans, some of whom viewed it as a form of hypocrisy as Jorge did tend to criticize less friendly Spartans for their apathy. This minor contention was not missed by the ONI, but no measures were taken to address its source. The aftermath of the Battle of Miridem saw Jorge encounter Doctor Halsey very briefly following her rescue and return to Reach. The deaths of Sheila-065, Solomon-069 and Arthur-079 were still fresh on everyone's minds, and Halsey busied herself making minor upgrades to Gold Team's MJOLNIR armor. Jorge received a boost to his armor's force-multiplying capabilities, a bonus which complimented his role as a heavy weapons specialist. During Halsey's inspection of his suit, she scolded him for allowing it to become so battered over the years and insisted that he take better care of "her" armor. Immediately following the upgrades, Gold Team was directed elsewhere and Jorge would not see Halsey again for many years. In 2546, Gold Team was split up and its respective members sent into different conflicts to compensate for the dwindling numbers of active Spartan-IIs and the growing desperation of the UNSC as it struggled to repel the ever-advancing Covenant. Jorge and Maria remained together as a two-man team tasked with neutralizing insurgents in Inner Colony space, as the loss of the Outer Colonies had increased Insurrectionist activity deeper in UNSC territory. They learned of Cal-141's death months after the fact, when she was listed MIA following an assassination mission; Malcolm remained alive and well, but now part of Green Team and entrenched in constant battle against the Covenant on the front lines. Maria and Jorge were finally separated when the ONI deemed it necessary to deploy them individually to different locations, and though they accepted their orders without question, there was a decidedly somber note to their parting. Rumors related to a serious breach of the Spartan fraternization protocol abounded after a seemingly inexplicable surveillance glitch occurred in the Spartans' quarters, but no charges were made and any official investigation into the matter was nixed in favor of ferrying the two Spartans to their new posts. The Skopje Incident In April of 2548, during the UNSC's final efforts to hold the contested colony of Skopje, Jorge tasked with destroying navigation data aboard a crashed ONI Prowler, the Illusive, in accordance with the . In order to reach the Illusive, the Spartan had to penetrate Covenant defenses and work his way behind enemy lines; the Covenant had overlooked the crashed vessel, but the UNSC could not risk Earth's location falling into enemy hands. Along the way, Jorge encountered another Spartan whose identity he did not recognize; due to all the confusion and a lack of proper communication between different sections of ONI, a had been deployed with the same objective as Jorge. The two of them joined forces, prioritizing the data over the obvious questions a previously unknown Spartan's presence raised. Together he and cut their way through Covenant patrols and reached the Illusive, destroying the navigation data and the ship as well to prevent the Covenant study of UNSC stealth ship technology. The destruction of the Prowler attracted the attention of nearby Covenant infantry, and the Spartans were forced to fight their way through waves of enemies as they retreated. After they slaughtered a small encampment of Grunts and Elites, Jorge and B170 manned a vacant Wraith tank and proceeded to devastate any hostiles that got in their way as they cut a path back to UNSC territory. However, a Jackal sniper shot B170, who manned the Wraith's secondary gun, in the head with a beam rifle, punching through her helmet and killing her instantly. Jorge continued on until he was able to establish radio contact with nearby UNSC forces and abandoned the Wraith after removing B170's body; he carried the corpse to the extraction point and removed her helmet in order to retrieve her , which her armor's onboard computer had automatically alerted him of upon her death. His attempt to access the chip's content was unsuccessful due to the information being protected by security protocols. When an Albatross dropship, already filled with Marines and ODSTs retrieved from other locations, landed to receive the Spartan, Jorge was immediately confronted by Marine Gunnery Sergeant Alfonso Del Valle, who refused to let B170's corpse aboard the dropship. Del Valle cited lack of space and the blow to morale the sight of a dead Spartan would cause to his men as reasons for leaving her behind, though his antipathy toward Spartans in general leaked through his supposed good intentions. Recognizing Del Valle's bias and outright violation of protocol, which dictated that Spartan physiology and MJOLNIR gear must either be appropriated by ONI or destroyed after death, Jorge boarded the Albatross anyway with B170 in his arms. A brief scuffle resulted when Del Valle ordered his men to stop Jorge, and though the Spartan protested vehemently, he did not prevent them from dragging her body out of the dropship; Del Valle and several Marines drew their weapons, while the ODSTs "restrained" Jorge physically. Enraged but aware that Del Valle had set him up so that he would harm fellow servicemen if he went any further, Jorge accused the Gunny of blind prejudice and went so far as to insinuate the Marine was a traitor. Del Valle - who would be penalized for his actions and stripped of rank following the conclusion of his time on Skopje - ordered the dropship's pilot to depart, leaving B170's remains behind. Jorge still possessed her helmet, however, and spent the flight contemplating how youthful, even childlike, her face had been. When the Albatross arrived at Fort Grummond, the Marines aboard were immediately accosted by ONI operatives while Jorge was escorted deep within the fort's high-security facility and informed that he was now subject to ONI Section III's Beta-5 division. The operatives took possession of the chip he had recovered from B170 and put him through an intensive debriefing, in which he described how he had encountered B170, the nature of her demise, and how her body had been mishandled. For the remainder of the Battle of Skopje, Jorge would be held in Beta-5 custody and restricted to performing his duty as security for the ONI at Fort Grummond, ultimately assisting in evacuations from the fort when the Covenant's victory at Skopje became unavoidable. Upon boarding the UNSC Serendipity, he was ordered to enter cryogenic stasis and the pod containing him was transferred via Prowler to the UNSC When he was roused from stasis, Jorge was introduced to Army Colonel , who informed the Spartan-II that he would now serve under Army Special Warfare Group Three as approved by HIGHCOM but would retain his Navy affiliation. Holland bestowed upon Jorge the insignia of a Chief Warrant Officer and took him to the secure room known as Odin's Eye, where he was briefed on the existence of the Spartan-III Program and his new role as a Spartan-II who would serve alongside Spartan-IIIs. Satisfied by Jorge's open-minded attitude toward Spartan-III, Holland then informed him that a unit had already been selected for his inclusion: NOBLE Team. Noble Five Odd Man Out Operation: SIDEWINDER Fumirole The Fight for Reach Invasion Operation: UPPER CUT Dossier Battles *Skirmish at Jericho VII * Operation: REVOCATE * Battle of Shambhala * Battle of * * Operation: THIRD EYE * Battle of * Operation: HARD FREEZE * * Operation: SIDEWINDER * * * Career Service Vitae Physical Information At roughly seven and a half feet tall and ~320 pounds in the peak of health, Jorge is one of the largest Spartan-IIs, reaching nearly eight feet when encased in MJOLNIR armor. He is also one of the strongest, having adapted exceptionally well to the muscular enhancement injections administered during his augmentation. When shorn close, his hair is brown, but lightens to dark blonde when allowed to grow past a few centimeters; his eyes are hazel. Like all Spartan-IIs, he was offered the chance to receive cosmetic surgery following the augmentations which left his body covered in surgical scars, but elected only to have his face repaired. His sharp features and heavy brow give the illusion of a perpetual scowl, an intimidating factor increased by scarring accumulated from past battles. Despite his immense strength, he is not one of the heavier-built Spartans and possesses the physical proportions of an Olympic runner, albeit with noticeably more developed upper body musculature. His entire body is a maze of scarring from past injuries and surgical procedures, to the point where it is difficult to tell where some of them begin and end. Inspired by his teammate , Jorge acquired a tattoo of Hungarian verse on his right bicep and the image of a Turul on his back. Aside from these, he possesses no body modifications beyond those administered as part of the augmentations. Mental Evaluation A Spartan Apart }} Jorge's personality was perhaps his most unique aspect as a Spartan, as it set him apart from most of his fellow Spartans and made him difficult for others to read. From an early age, he displayed sentimentality which made him an annoyance to the more stoic of his class and often served to distract him from mission objectives. Though he was honed into a superior soldier from seven years of training and indoctrination, he retained a more extroverted nature and was noted by superiors as having little difficulty interacting with non-Spartans, a trait he shared with . His sociability increased over the course of the Human-Covenant War to the point where he became famous (or rather, infamous) for debating his opinions with fellow NCOs and holding views which some Spartans found controversial. He was especially known for his verbal support of colonial independence, though he condemned the violent Insurrection in equal measure. Jorge was noted by ONI psychologists as becoming emotional when confronted with the horrors of the Human-Covenant War, a trait which sometimes elicited contempt from other Spartans. Though raised to kill Insurrectionists, he valued the lives of civilians greatly and felt a great sense of injustice when they were killed. Despite his dedication to his duty and unquestionable combat ability, it was posited more than once that Jorge's calm and deliberate persona masked a more fragile nature that could become a liability. His performance in battle seemed to render such fears unfounded, but it was theorized that removing Sierra-052 from a team scenario – where he naturally assumed a strong and solid attitude to keep up morale – would bring out his less desirable traits. Relationships Gallery Quotes Trivia *Jorge-052 is the author's favorite Spartan-II. In case you hadn't figured it out yet... *The story portrayed in this article has been in development since late 2010, though it has changed significantly since its initial concept. *The name György means "farmer, earthworker," while Őrszem means "sentinel." Category:Class I Spartan-IIs